Popularity and Unpopularity
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: Oneshot. Larry Tudgeman thinks about the differences between Yami Yugi and himself, as well as wishing he could be popular instead of unpopular.


**Hey there! Here's a new Lizzie McGuire/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover oneshot I cooked up. I was imagining what Lawrence "Larry" Tudgeman is thinking as he watches while another guy who looks like he's stepped off the front cover of People magazine is walking down the hallway of Hillridge High School, and everyone else is staring after him. **

**I feel bad for Larry, as I myself was once in his shoes when it came to being picked on, except I was never called a nerd or a geek. I remember when I had been bullied, not just once, but three times – once in junior high school, and twice in high school. But thankfully I got over that, and I hope that those of you who are being picked on or have been bullied will get over or have gotten over that as well.**

**Well, with the image of Larry watching the handsome guy as he walks down the hall still fresh in my mind, here's what I came up with. Hope you like it, and be sure to tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: Genius Terri Minsky owns Lizzie McGuire. Kazuki Takahashi (also a genius) owns Yu-Gi-Oh. I own the oneshots, crossovers, poems and stories I cook up from time to time.**

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Popularity and Unpopularity

_Never made it as a wise man  
I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing  
Tired of living like a blind man  
I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling  
And this is how you remind me  
This is how you remind me  
Of what I really am  
This is how you remind me  
Of what I really am_

_It's not like you to say sorry  
I was waiting on a different story  
This time I'm mistaken  
for handing you a heart worth breaking  
and I've been wrong, I've been down,  
been to the bottom of every bottle  
these five words in my head  
scream "are we having fun yet?"_

_yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no  
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no_  
-Nickelback, **How You Remind Me**

It was another day at Hillridge High School. And as usual, for Lawrence "Larry" Tudgeman, it was just another day of being ignored, and sometimes – even worse – being called a "geek", "nerd" or "loser". He believed that, in his mind, he wasn't any of those names at all. Not one single bit.

He didn't believe those whisperings about him back in junior high school, and he didn't believe them now in high school, either.

Larry sighed as he closed his locker and leaned his back against it. For him, being ignored and/or teased was, to him, par for the course.

Although he was ridiculed and taunted by his fellow students, Larry had a far more superior image of himself and saw himself as a sophisticated alpha-male – cool, brilliant, witty, debonair, articulate, suave and handsome. However, his peers didn't exactly agree with him in that way at all. Most people saw him as eccentric, obsessive and lacking in hygiene. One reason was because he had worn the same shirt – which was putty-colored with a lime-green collar – since the fourth grade.

"Hey, Yami!"

"How's it going for you, Yami, my man?"

Larry looked up. There **he** was – none other than Yami Yugi himself. Like he usually did, at least in the minds of his peers, Yami looked as though he had stepped off the set of a photo shoot for **People **magazine. He was wearing a non-sleeved black shirt, a blue jacket over the shirt, and blue pants. On his feet were boots that matched his jacket and pants.

Larry sighed again. He felt that Yami had all the luck, like most handsome guys. Unlike him, Yami was usually sought after, with girls sneaking roses into his locker, or little, folded-up notes that said really nice things.

One of the notes read,

_"Roses are red,  
Violets are blue.  
You might not know it, Yami,  
But we girls dearly love you"_.

Larry, however, never got any flowers at all, and the kind of notes he got in his locker said things like "You're a nerd, Tudgeman" and "Leave us alone, you geek". He simply just casually crumpled them up and put them into the nearest trash can.

Another part of Larry's personality was that he was also obsessed with science fiction movies and television programs.

He then remembered that one fateful day in junior high when Gordo was setting him up and asked him to describe himself.

Larry had replied, "I've always seen myself as a Captain Kirk meets James Bond type of guy ... going where no secret agent has ever been before."

When Gordo revealed to him that he was a "geek", Larry remembered getting extremely offended at Gordo's words and exclaiming in reply,  
"I'm a geek? No, I'm **not**! My mom says that people are just mean to me because they're _jealous_!"

Larry shook his head. For the first time in his life, he, Lawrence "Larry" Tudgeman actually knew what it felt like – the same emotion he thought his peers felt towards him. And that was jealousy. He actually felt jealous of Yami Yugi himself. Of course, he believed it wasn't Yami's fault that people were so nice to Yami, and often treated him like he was a star – like a music star or a movie star.

Then part of the lyrics to Rockstar by Nickelback came to him – the part at the beginning. He felt he could relate to that in some way.

_I'm through with standing in line  
To clubs I'll never get in  
It's like the bottom of the ninth  
And I'm never gonna win  
This life hasn't turned out  
Quite the way I want it to be_

He knew what it felt like to be the outcast. To be the person that was left out of things. To be picked on and often called by your last name rather than your first name. He knew what it felt like to be labeled a "loser" instead of a "winner". After all, actor Johnny Depp was both a "winner" and a "champion", and people never called him a "loser", either. Instead they preferred to call him "quirky", "mysterious" and "way cool". Larry often wished he was called "mysterious" – but in a good way – and "way cool".

He knew how it felt to be called a "freak". Besides being both a winner and a champion, Johnny would also play characters that were called "freaks" and "loners" and took movie roles that were seen as highly unconventional, and he did that with excellence. Larry sometimes wished for the ability to play characters like that with excellence, too.

He knew how it felt to be called a "loner". To be left out in the cold, to be laughed at and teased, to be verbally pelted with stones, to be picked on and have all these labels stuck on you.

But then again, he had graduated from Hillridge Junior High to Hillridge High School, and he had left all that behind... or so he thought. When he had first come to Hillridge High School, the familiar pattern had also started up again – the teasing, the cruel jokes, the snickering and laughter behind his back and the being left out. He had found his own way of dealing with that – namely, ignoring his tormentors, and then checking to see if they felt they were being ignored or left out. He hoped so; he had always wanted to see what that felt like for them.

But now, while he was looking at Yami, the jealous look now replaced with a look of respect, he had to admit he was right about one thing, and that was that he wasn't alone in the world when it came to either being bullied or being showered with attention.

Larry smiled at the thought. After all, he was not the only one who was unpopular and picked on. There were lots of people in the world who were not only unpopular, but also sometimes picked on, bullied and teased themselves. He often wondered what they saw, heard, felt and wondered, too.

With that, Larry hugged his books against his chest and then followed after Yami, hoping to get his attention. He could hardly wait to tell Yami the observations he had noticed and remembered.

After all, in high school, there are the popular people who are treated with respect and showered with attention. Then, there are the not-so-popular people, who are often either teased and ridiculed, or ignored and left out.

At least, that's how it looks to some people. The social ladder can be frustrating. So is either climbing it or being at the top of the ladder itself.

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**Well, I hope you like this oneshot as much as I liked writing it. Feedback is appreciated - especially the nice kind, of course. :)**

**~Nightcrawlerlover**


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